Walking along Conservation Field margins

Thu 14 May 2020, 20:43

Sorry I am not an educated man, I can't give detailed information l like facts and figures. I don't own anything much less agricultural land and yes I am  just  a member of public, but I do keep my eyes and ears open and I do like information on a wide range of subject's and learning. I have to side with Mr Whitaker and co as you don't need to be a landowner to understand some of the issues facing the Great British Farmer.

As far as conservation goes many butterflies and moth caterpillars are reliant on the wildflowers beneath our feet as well as the grasses, the ones we call weeds. Many people use the phrase pretty blooms and flora and I have enjoyed learning what they are from bloody cranesbill, oxeye daisy, birds foot trefoil even the tiny hop trefoil. Bumblebees and mining bees etc like to build/dig their nests on the edges of paths where the soil is undisturbed and gets necessary sunlight not to mention the wild orchids that never get the chance to bloom.The protection it affords brown hares, ground nesting birds and even our own rarity Downy woundwort also known as Charlbury woundwort.

As far as our farming communities goes i don't believe for a single moment that there isn't a Great British Farmer out there that wouldn't like to go back to more traditional farming techniques in their heart's! Farmers only turned to agricultural herbicides and pesticides because the Great British public demanded more, more, more and pay less, less, less we did it to ourselves  it as always looking back with 20/20 vision is always easier to put blame at others doorstep let alone the lack of knowledge of the knock on effect now. Farming subsidies i believe do little more than give farmers a little lea way when constantly competing against cheap imports. Farmers are constantly having to changing and adapt and when they can't compete and sell for housing we also whinge, how about supporting our farmers instead. If you had been up the ditchley road recently you would have heard the entire dairy herd calling their calf's pointlessly so you can have milk in your tea, coffee and cereal or butter and cheese on your bread. The farmer's have to live with sound and knowledge of what's to come.

I have walked enough field margins some non existent and some up to 12 ft wide  and even i can appreciate the shear tonnage of grain and crops lost to a farmer financially even if I can't do the math. It is the right of every farmer to plough their fields boundary line to boundary line, install security devices and sue people causing damage to their crops as is their rights. They would probably make more money if they did.

Many farmers are constantly searching for better, safer environmentally friendly techniques organic bio fertilizers. Our own Ditchley estate have been involved in extensive tests netting off entire fields just to be sure of results. There are many conservation projects all with a starting point of re-wilding. Sometimes a little local knowledge helps like the knowledge beekeepers bring to the table with first hand knowledge when entire hives die from pesticides/herbicides like the ones we use in gardens.

As for dogs they generally can do more damage to open countryside than any  neighbourhood cat can. Ask a farmer what's it like seeing a whole herd of sheep miscarry one dead lamb after another. A cat can't do that.

Small steps in the right direction leads to leaps and bounds in the future first we need to support our farming communities rather than just make assumptions and cast dispersion no nature, no crops, no food. We could just concede defeat concrete over the green and become a housing estate for the rest of Europe.

We either support our farmers or support them when they give up, sell up and give us lots of his new house's like the ones on the left side of the road going out of Woodstock towards Oxford. Over the last 2 decade's we have lost enough farms that we can no longer ever really be self sufficient.

Farmer's are not the ones in control we the consumer control their future!

As regards to walking in the countryside we all just have to be a little bit more mindful these days even if others can't.